Flood Insurance?

As a grant researcher, I find that there is a lot of information (and grant programs too concerning those areas that have been hit by heavy rains, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.,.....When these areas have been hard-hit they can usually be declared as disaster areas and therefore those areas will be eligible for financial aid from the government.

However, the first step always involves what kind of homeowner's insurance one has. The first step is always to see what kind of benefits (financial money) one is entitled to when they have been hard-hit by the weather.

Many people may think that they have flood insurance as part of their home insurance package but that is not always the case! You should check and make sure that your home is covered for flood damage! You don't want to have to wait until you actually get some kind of flood damage and then find out that you are not covered! Here is an excerpt from an online article:

"Only about 1 percent of homeowners outside designated floodplains purchase flood insurance. Home or business owners in flood-prone areas are usually required to purchase flood insurance before they can get a mortgage loan"......

So what should you do if you find out that you don't have flood insurance? You can purchase additional coverage ("rider" policy) to include with your regular homeowner's insurance policy.

More News On The Ever-Increasing Foreclosure Front

Here is a current article about Prsident Bush and the current foreclosure problems that are plaguing homeowners who can't afford to meet their monthly mortgage payments.

While the President said that he didn't approve of giving homeowners out and out grants, he did favor programs that would help homeowners with good credit to be able to re-finance their mortgages. However I think that a big problem with this is that there are a lot of homeowners that have bad credit ratings who need help with meeting their monthly mortgage payments. There are a lot of homeowners who have taken mortgages with very high rates and more worse they have taken out adjustable rate mortgages as opposed to fixed-rate mortgages. With adjustable rate mortgages the monthly mortgage payments are not the same every month and will sometimes increase to a lot more than what was paid the previous month.

I was watching one of those infomercials about how there is a lot of money to be made with foreclosures but all I could really think about when I was watching this program was about the people and families that have lost their homes!

Avoiding Foreclosure - Help

As the number of foreclosures increases there may be more help available for you then you realize:

Here are some very good tips to follow to help you to try to avoid foreclosure

Do NOT ignore the lender.

Somehow getting behind on a mortgage comes with a built in belief that phoning your lender constitutes a sin or that a call to a lender will result in their ripping your head off right through the chord. In truth, most lenders appreciate knowing why you are having trouble and like updates on how things are going, especially when your problems have justified reasons like health issues or the loss of a job. Treat letters from your lender as wake up call from a concerned neighbor rather than a threat from a bully. Remember – banks want to help get you back on track, they want their payments not your house. If you do not think you can talk to them yourself about a plan there are professional foreclosure negotiators who can help if you have fallen behind.

And this tip I like the best!

Do NOT think you have no options, Do NOT fail to take advantage of
them.

You may believe, or your lender may lead you to believe, that you must pay them in full or lose your home to foreclosure. In fact, many options exist which will allow you to keep your house and stop the foreclosure proceeding without paying all of your arrearage at once. Some choices may even reduce what you owe on your property by tens of thousands of dollars. Almost everyone has some options and the sooner you act the more options you have. As the foreclosure date gets closer, options continue to become unavailable until by the foreclosure date only payment in full or a bankruptcy filing remain. Read more about what foreclosure prevention options you have and take action as fast as you can.

Going Into Foreclosure? It Doesn't Necessarily Mean The End!

Is your home going into foreclosure? It doesn't necessarily have to mean the end!

I have written a lot about foreclosures on this blog. First off there are going to be so many more of them this year and also too I think that going through foreclosure is a terrible thing! I know a neighbor in my area whose family lost their home because of the property taxes not being paid.

If your home is in foreclosure there are some things that you can do that can maybe help your situation. I guess the first piece of advice would be for you to avoid the foreclosure process in the first place by paying your mortgage on time but I realize that that isn't always possible. Sometimes an emergency financial crisis will pop up out of nowhere and you have to choose between the lesser of 2 evils.

If you think that you are going to not be able to make your mortgage payment you should call your mortgage company and discuss it with them. Some mortgage companies may re-negotiate your payments to a smaller amount. It is a common-held belief that a lot of the mortgage companies don't want to have to put your property in foreclosure because they lose out so they may be very willing to work with you to help make your payments more manageable.

Secondly you may be able to qualify for some grant programs to help pay for the mortgage payments that you missed. Beside government grant programs you should also look into other grant programs to help you. There are a number of "financial emergency" grant programs that will provide grant money that you don't have to pay back to help you pay your back mortgage payments.

Lastly every state's foreclosure process is different. Sometimes it can take as much as six months for the foreclosure to take place and in that amount of time you may be able to pay the money that is owed.

The Number Of Elderly Who Are Losing Their Homes Has Increased By An Alarming Rate!

I just got finished reading an article about how the number of elderly who are losing their homes is increasing by an alarming rate. I wrote on my LaMott Blog about how I personally knew a neighbor who had lost their home because of the back property taxes that weren't paid. They had lived in their home for a number of years and had accumulated a lot of stuff. But the time came and a notice was put on their door and their house was sold.

Now in my area the property taxes run about $4,000 a year! It comes from 2 different tax bills and one of those is the school tax bill (which is the highest). Some seniors argue that since they don't have any children in the schools that they shouldn't have to pay these taxes. While the issue has been debated there nothing that has been put into law. There is a funding program where seniors can get some money to offset the cost of their property taxes but in my area that amounts to just over 10% of the tax due.

It seems that the counties are going after unpaid property taxes more strongly and I know of at least one area where the due property taxes are sold at auction to the highest bidder. The county gets their money and there is a new holder of the property tax bill that the homeowner has to pay.

By law, the city can seize homes and sell them for back taxes at a treasurer's auction. Homeowners who don't pay the debt within 90 days of the auction will lose their homes.

One person's home was put up for auction because he only owed around $600 in back property taxes.

Do You Want To Buy Property Cheaply?

I have always had mixed feelings about about buying foreclosures and buying property "on the cheap". The problem I have with it are the people that don't want to lose their homes and they are forced to lose their homes - sometimes at a price less than the equity that they already have in their homes.

With that being said there seems to be a lot of talk about real estate investing and opportunities for people to buy their first home or for investors to buy property. Unfortunately there will be a record number of foreclosures this year and a lot of people and investors are taking advantage of it. I even posted earlier about how one county sells delinquent property tax bills to the highest bidder. The county gets their money and the highest bidder now has a valuable lien note.

There are different types of property sales all over the United States and when you figure in how many different counties there are in different states then the number of opportunities increases. I have seen properties sold for less than 1/10th of their appraised value! And that is where the money is being made as far as investing in real estate is concerned.

However if you're not a real estate investor and are just looking for property that you can live in you should definitely check out some of these opportunities. You may be able to get a good piece of property very cheaply!

Home Loans - Oh The Trouble We Get In!

There are going to be a record number of foreclosures nationwide! This is sad news for homeowners but good news for real estate investors.

I know that investing in real estate is a popular (and lots of people say) profitable business to go into but my thoughts are on the people that are losing their homes. It is not a very good feeling and it is not a pretty sight!

If you are a homeowner and you still have a mortgage on your property - in my honest opinion - I think that you should make paying your mortgage a priority! While you make your regular mortgage payments set aside what extra money you have and put it towards a "mortgage" fund. In fact try to make it a point of having extra money that you can put aside and put into your mortgage fund!

What about mortgage insurance? Personally I would rather set up my own mortgage insurance using the advice that I gave above. Insurance companies take your money and invest it and earn interest and dividends on it. Hopefully you should be able to do that very same thing on your own.

Owning Your Own Home

One of the best pieces of financial advice is to own your own home. I realize that not all people are "homeowner" people. Some people are "apartment" people. One of the reasons why owning your own home is advised is because paying a mortgage is quite different than paying rent. It has been said that when you pay your rent every month that you are essentially throwing it away. When you are paying a mortgage you get one step closer to owning your own home completely. You are building equity in your property and your home becomes more of an assest.

If you're an "apartment-type" person and you like things just the way they are then that is fine for you because that's the way that you want it to be.

If you ever thought about owning your own home, there may be many options available to you. I do know that there are some grant programs to help first time home buyers. (And I'm going to put more information about it in my Grant Basics 101 Blog that I just started. Realtors seem to be very helpful and useful to those that want to buy a home (they get a commission of course) so you may find that using a realtor to help you will be helpful. There are also things like sheriff sales and tax sales that go on and you should check to see if there are any going on in your area.

If you want to become a homeowner or are seriously considering it then you should investigate further about being able to own your own home. I do want to issue a word of warning though because many people are having problems keeping up with their mortgage payments and there is a big increase in foreclosures. A lot of people have gotten home loans, such as adjustable reate mortgages, where they can't meet the payments. The best kind of mortgage to get on one's home is a 30-year fixed mortgage.

Even if you feel that you won't be able to afford buying a house I urge you to look more into it. You may be surprised as to what options that you will have available to you!

Foreclosures - Losing Your Home

I was listening to the news and they reported that the number of foreclosed homes was expected to increase to 20%. I personally know someone that lost their home because the back taxes weren't paid. What makes it all the more worse is that the house will probably be sold for less its value and I don't even know what will happen to the equity (if the previous owners had any) that was in the house. Do the previous owners get that or do they not get anything?

I know that its the "in" thing to be investing in real estate which includes foreclosures but what about the people who are being foreclosed on? I'm sure they are not feeling like they are being part of the "in" thing. The news story goes on to say that there are some options for people who are behind in their mortgage payments. I think a lot of those options involve refinancing their mortgage. A lot of people have gotten those adjustable rate mortgages which are bad because the mortgage payments can go up. But I do understand why people get them. Besides questionable tactics by the companies that handle this, people just go through the procedure so that they can be able to buy the property. I know that this may not seem like a good excuse to some but there are just those instances where your logic takes a back seat and you can't think of anything but the matter at hand.

What's the solution? It's hard to say because everyone has their own different set of circumstances. In a nutshell, if you want to be able to keep your house but you are behind on your payments you should seek some help. If you have exhausted everything that you can do yourself then find someone to help you. First you should seek help from those that don't charge a fee (if you can help it). There should be resources in your own community that you can call and find out how you can address this issue. If the first place you call hasn't helped then call another and keep calling until you can find some help.

Now this may not be a popular subject but I am going to say it anyway and that is that you should start a budget! You can call it your "keeping your house" budget and in that budget you save! Any piece of extra money you put into that budget. You never spend it you just keep adding to it even if it is a few pennies at the start! You save enough to be able to put in a bank account and then you save enough so that you can put it in a bank account that will bring you some interest. Remember that this is your "keep your house" account and remembering that hopefully will rid you of the temptation to spend the money.

Losing Your Home To Back Property Taxes

Here are some basic things that I know about this process....

If your property taxes are not paid (in some cases by the end of the year) then their is a lien put on the property. In that case if you sell the property then the amount of the back property taxed owed has to be paid before you get any money. If the property taxes aren't paid then the property is sold and the back taxes are paid from the amount that the property sold for.

I have heard different views on what a person can do in situations like this one. I have even heard the term "property tax consultant".

It is never a very pleasant thing when someone is losing their property especially when that property is their home.